Owning and disowning the past without forgetting what happened

For Kentuckians, the issue of Confederate monument removal or reinterpretation has come up in Louisville, Lexington and Frankfort. In Lexington, Mayor Gray is proposing the relocation of the statues of slavery defenders John C. Breckinridge and John Hunt Morgan from the front of the old courthouse, where a slave auction block once stood. In Frankfort, the statue of the Confederacy’s president, Jefferson Davis, which stands in a place of honor in the capitol rotunda, has been targeted for removal by 11 lawmakers, activists and professors, who signed a letter to Gov. Bevin urging him make that decision.